Since Jerry Dipoto’s arrival in Seattle near the end of the 2015 season, the biggest obstacle keeping the Mariners out of the postseason has been the presence of a titan within their own division, the American League West. The Houston Astros won the World Series in 2017 and have won the American League pennant twice more since.
The Mariners weren’t good enough to catch the Astros in the regular season; Houston won 16 more games than Seattle. But the Mariners now have a chance to send a 106-win juggernaut to an early winter, zooming into this American League Division Series off one of the most thrilling comebacks in recent memory. Seattle erased a seven-run deficit in the deciding game of the Wild Card round in Toronto, coming all the way back to set up this matchup.
The Mariners scored 10 runs in that game. The Astros gave up more than nine runs only three times in the entire regular season. Houston has a formidable pitching staff, perhaps the deepest in the sport, a stingy group headlined by future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander. He will take the baseball in Game 1, in his first playoff appearance since 2019. At 39, Verlander put forth an excellent season, with a 1.75 ERA and an 0.829 WHIP. His velocity has dimmed, ever so slightly, but his results have not.
His teammates are not far behind him. Framber Valdez is the game’s premier ground-ball specialist. Cristian Javier struck out 11.7 batters per nine innings.
